United Force
by Durhelediel
Summary: It is the eve of Luke and Mara's wedding...but even then a Jedi's work is never done. Espeically when an old student of Luke's comes back to haunt him with a grave choice--his death...or the deaths of countless innocents. FINISHED!
1. Default Chapter

Disclaimer: All recognizable Star Wars characters belong to George Lucas and not to me and I don't make any money off of this either. Wish I did…I'm broke.  Lol

Author's Note: Thanks to all my 'fans'. I've been writing still…just with someone else while in college. Be sure to check out those stories under author name Layjinn. We've worked really hard for a long time on some of these. This is also my first solo fic in a while so if it's rough in the beginning I apologize in advance. Send feedback!! I live off of it!!

            Jedi Master Luke Skywalker fidgeted in his all black Jedi outfit.  He still could not believe that he was now married…and to a wonderful woman at that.  She was kind, sensitive, determined, courageous, and completely able to hold her own against virtually anything.  He could not believe she picked him.

            Almost as if she could read his thoughts—perhaps she could—Mara Jade, now Skywalker, turned and smiled at him from across the reception hall.  Her brilliant red hair threw rosy shadows across her white wedding dress as her green eyes questioned his somber mood.  

            Luke sent her a reassuring thought and she turned back to what his twin sister, Leia Organa Solo, was saying to her about the conclusion of the wedding.  He supposed he should bring his attention back to what the men around him were talking about as well.

            To his surprise, they were not chatting about the wedding that had just ended, but at a new threat rumored in the Republic hierarchy.

            "…destroyed twenty settlements in the last four months," Luke's good friend, Wedge Antilles was saying.  The brown haired man gestured with his empty glass toward the direction of the Senate building on Coruscant.  "The bureaucrats have no idea who is behind it or why."

            Chewbacca, his fur immaculately groomed, growled a question which Han Solo, Luke's best man and brother-in-law, translated.

            "Good question, Chewie.  He wants to know how many worlds have been hit and if there seems to be a pattern to these attacks?" Han Solo, looking as uncomfortable in his dress uniform as Luke felt, said as he had a droid refill his glass.

            Wedge shook his head. "No definite numbers have come in but an estimated four worlds all in the same sector.  Intelligence is working on possible patterns."

            Pash Cracken, whose father ran the New Republic's Intelligence, shrugged, his red locks swinging with the movement. "I haven't heard anything from Dad.  They're pretty stumped."

            Luke frowned. "Surely these attackers should be leaving some clues behind in their multiple attacks.  We just haven't found them or know what they mean yet."

            All heads turned toward him when he spoke and a few faces blushed. 

            "Sorry, kid, we shouldn't be talking about this at your wedding," Han apologized, swigging his drink down in one gulp.

            Wedge's blush was still on his cheeks as he added, "Yeah, this is a celebration, not a Council meeting." He glanced around to find Winter and Iella near Mara and nodded a signal to his wife.

            Iella clapped her hands together to interrupt the buzzing of conversation.  "Everyone!  It's time now for Mara to throw her flowers.  Single ladies, please group together over here." She pointed near Mara.

            Mara sent a look of exasperation at Luke.  She had not wanted a huge or fancy wedding, and if the truth was told neither had he.  But Leia had planned the wedding, with Mara's blessing, and so both bride and groom had to suffer through the events until they could both be finally alone.

            Laying in his arms later than night, Mara reached out to brush a lock of hair from Luke's face.  His eyes were closed but she knew that her husband was not asleep.  

            "Luke, what is it that's bothering you?" She asked in her throaty voice.

            Luke opened one eye to gaze at her briefly and then he shut it again.  "Just something Wedge brought up at the reception.  Have you heard anything through the smugglers about mysterious attacks on settlements?"

            Mara thought for a moment.  As second-in-command to Talon Karrde's smuggler group she learned a lot of things through fringe channels that the Republic hierarchy did not.  Racking her brain, she came up with nothing. "No, but that's not unlikely.  I've been so busy getting the wedding plans finalized, and keeping your sister from destroying our wedding, that I haven't had much of a chance to talk to Karrde lately.  Why do you ask?  Has something happened?"

            He sighed and propped himself up on an elbow to gaze down at her with his ice-blue eyes.  He filled her in with what little he knew and then said, "It disturbs me.  So far, there seems to be no motive for these attacks.  If I focus into the Force to try to get a reading of the flow of the future, everything is muddied and unclear—which is not unusual.  What is disturbing to me is the fact that I do sense malevolence behind it all but I cannot locate it."

            Mara frowned, shadows from the window playing across her face.  "You can't sense at all where this malevolence might be even remotely stationed at?"

            Luke shook his head in mute frustration.

            Mara was not happy about this news at all.  Luke was one of the most powerful Jedi she had ever known—and she had known quite a few.  When she had been younger, she had been personally trained by the Emperor and was called his 'Hand' as she completed duties for him from lightyears away.  She had been around Darth Vader—Anakin Skywalker—and the Emperor for many years and had seen both of their powers at work.  Through the years, she had gotten to know Luke as well, and through quite a few dangers together had seen just what he could do with very little in the way of training in the Force.  If he could not sense this trouble very well, then it sent a chill down her spine.

            "I…" She started to say but was interrupted by Luke's comlink.  "Who is that on tonight of all nights?" She demanded irritably.

            Luke smiled apologetically to her and flipped it on. "Skywalker here.  What's going on?"

            To his mild surprise, Han's tense voice came back to him.  "Sorry, kid, Mara," he said.  "I need you both to come to the Imperial Palace's Communications Room as soon as you possibly can."

            Luke glanced at Mara, at the way her eyes narrowed with concern.  "On our way," he responded.  He smiled at his wife.  "Shall we get dressed first?"

            She tossed a pillow at him and then stood to search for her gray flightsuit.

            Han, Leia, Admiral Ackbar, and several others in high positions in the New Republic command stood, their body positions as tight as their mental senses, as Luke and Mara strode into the Communications Center of the Imperial Palace.

            "What seems to be the trouble?" Mara asked, as usual getting immediately to the point.

            Leia gestured to the screen they were all facing, her hair disheveled from being roused from bed as well at this late hour.  "A transmission came in for Luke.  Admiral Ackbar was on duty and called us first since it is your honeymoon.  I thought it wise to let you both see this right away." She nodded at the Calamarian, who immediately started the message.

            An aging man's face appeared, the dark brown hair almost gray.  His skin was wrinkled terribly—something that both Luke and Mara remembered about the Emperor.  With a sneer, the man pointed at where Luke should be standing were he where the receiver usually stood.

            "Master Skywalker," the man greeted, sarcasm dripping from his tone. "Perhaps you remember me?  I hope you remember all of your students who leave your precious Academy.  Now that I've jogged your memory, I want to show you something…"

            The screen blanked out for a moment, and then Luke found himself watching a peaceful scene of people in simple clothing going about their daily chores of living.  Children played and laughed, though he could not hear them.  Women smiled and men playfully swatted at children who wandered too closely to where they were reaping in a field of food.  It was a scene of joy and delight, a simple harmony of life…and with one blindingly bright flash, it was all gone.  Nothing was left of the field or even the people but a black smear on a tortured landscape.  They were just…gone.

            The man reappeared.  "Do I have your attention, Master Skywalker?  I thought it only fitting to celebrate your wedding and joy with the exact opposite—pain, fear and death.  How dare you have a right to happiness when all I have is nothing!"  He panted for a moment, regaining control, his brown eyes blazing.  After a minute, he continued, "I will continue to deliver these wedding presents to you and your lovely wife until you meet me on Helska in two week's time.  And, no, you will not be able to feel their deaths in the Force, Master Skywalker.  I have learned much that you did not teach me.  I am shielding their deaths from you to keep you from knowing how many innocents are dying because of your happiness.  You have two weeks to get to Helska.  If you are not there, many more will die and this time you will feel it all."  The transmission ended.

            Leia turned to face her brother.  "Who is it?  Do you know, Luke?"

            During the transmission, Mara had held his hand to give him a physical touch of reassurance.  Now, he pulled his hand away from her to cross it over his chest, fighting against a sense of despair and horror.

            Very quietly, he answered, "I know who it is.  It's Brakiss."

            Mara stared at him.  "The one who learned under Kueller for a while?"

            Luke nodded.  "The one and same.  I had hoped he escaped his hate; that was the impression I got from him that last time, anyway."

            "What are you going to do, kid?" Han asked. The question had obviously been on everyone else's minds for they all turned to him.

            Luke gestured helplessly.  "What else?  I'm going to Helska."


	2. Chapter 2

            Mara stared at her husband.  "You can't get to Helska in two weeks!  You would have had to leave two days ago at least.  Helska is all the way out to the Tingle Arm!"

            "Not in a normal ship, no," Han said, a sly grin crossing his face.  "But in the _Millennium Falcon _we should get there just in the nick of time."

            "'We'?" Luke raised an eyebrow at his friend.

            Both Leia and Mara nodded and chimed in, "Yes, 'we'."  The two women looked at each other for a moment.

            Luke shook his head.  "Leia, you have too many responsibilities here.  And, Mara…"

            Mara placed her fingertips on his lips.  Her eyes flashed dangerously.  "If you even think about saying that it's too 'dangerous' for me, Skywalker, so help me I'll be a widow…" She threatened.

            Mara's threat helped break up the gathered tension in the room as they all laughed.  Luke tenderly took her hand and kissed it.

            "All right then.  But Leia is staying here," he glanced at her sharply.  His eyes spoke to his twin of his fear for her safety.

            Leia stubbornly crossed her arms.  "We don't have the time to debate this in a committee," she shot out at her brother.  Han chuckled softly into his hand and she threw him a sharp glance.  Turning her attention to her brother again, she added, "And I'm on leave of absence from the Presidency, remember?  The kids are at the Academy and I have nothing better to do than to help protect my brother.  I'm going."

            Mara hid her smile and rapped on Luke's chest.  "Come on, Skywalker.  We need to get our things packed and get on our way if we're going to make it to Helska in two weeks."

            Luke sighed and gave up.  "Fine, but if I sense too much danger or fear, you all will stay on the ship with no arguments, understand?"

            Han smirked.  "Sure thing, kid."

            As Luke walked away shaking his head, he wondered why he didn't believe Han's agreement.

            "This is the _Falcon_ requesting liftoff," Han was saying into the comm in the cockpit as Luke and Mara walked by it.  Leia and Chewbacca were already seated and waiting.  

            "Granted," Admiral Ackbar's voice came back gruffly.  "Protect all that you can on your journey.  May the Force be with you."

            Han switched off the comm and grumbled, "So much for some peace and quiet for once."  He and Chewbacca began to adjust levers and toggles to get the _Falcon_ off Coruscant.

            Luke suppressed a vague feeling of unease as he stared at his sister and brother-in-law.  A strong sense urged him to leave them on Coruscant, but he knew that they would not stay there, no matter what he said to them.

            Mara tapped him on the shoulder.  "Luke, where are you?  Because you sure aren't here."  She gave him a knowing look.

            Luke plopped into a chair behind Chewbacca and sighed.  "I'm sorry about this happening on our honeymoon, Mara.  I guess we'll have to go to the beaches of Ord Mandell at a later time."

            Mara rolled her eyes.  "Luke, I was never really that fond of the whole relaxed beach scene anyway," she confided.  "I was just going because I thought you wanted to go there."

            Luke blinked in surprise.  "But I was just going because I thought _you_ wanted to go.  I've had enough sand to last me a whole lifetime from growing up on Tatooine."

            The couple stared at each other for a moment and then started laughing.

            Leia smiled, grateful to see her brother finally happy and with a great woman who appreciated him, not just for his Force talent, but for himself.

            _Luke stood on a cliff, facing a setting sun.  Life was all around him, bursting and full of energy.  He soaked in the feel of the Force around him, having it mold into him into in a way he had never experienced before.  It was rapture._

_            Then a ripple of darkness made up of fear and malcontent swam to his senses._

_            Luke turned, and then saw his student Brakiss._

_            Brakiss had aged considerably.  Gone was the boy full of promise and hope; that boy was replaced by an older man filled with hate and loathing.  _

_            Brakiss glared at Luke across the cliff's surface.  He pointed off to a speck in the distance._

_            When he spoke, his voice was deeper and raspier than on the transmission.  "See the people, Master Skywalker?  I have a decision for you to make and you have to make it before you arrive."_

_            Luke calmly regarded his former student.  "What would that be, Brakiss?"_

_            Brakiss sneered at him.  "You die…and they live.  No one else has to die; no more innocents will suffer needlessly.  All I want…is your death."_

_            Luke's heart nearly stopped.  He forced himself to remain calm.  "Why do you want my death so badly, Brakiss?  What happened to you to turn you all the way to the dark side?"_

_            The brown-haired man swallowed and Luke saw a tear in his eye.  "My mother.  She told me of the time you spent with her in her home.  You turned her against me.  She was the only one I had left in this galaxy that truly believed in me and you turned her against me!"_

_            Luke frowned. "How did I do that?  She saved me from death right before you delivered your warning to me about Kueller.  How did I turn her against you?"_

_            Brakiss scowled and his eyes flashed.  "You told her about what you sensed about me.  You told her that I was headed for the dark side but that you thought I could be saved."          _

_            Luke was puzzled.  "I suppose I did, but how…"_

_            "She tried to make me return to your Academy!" Brakiss screamed in rage.   "And when I wouldn't go back, she begged and pleaded with me.  She said she couldn't bear to see me wasting my life and when I wouldn't go back, she killed herself.  Left a note stating that she was a failure as a mother.  A failure!! It's all your fault!!" _

_            Luke was stunned.  Brakiss' mother had seemed more stable than that to him when she had rescued him.  A little odd, perhaps, but stable._

_            Brakiss had spittle flying out of his mouth now.  "You ruined the last part of my life that was good!  You must die, or millions of others will first!"_

_            He jabbed at a small button on his belt.  Suddenly, Luke could feel hundreds of voices cry out in pain…and then were silenced._

Luke gasped and sat upright in bed.  The pain lingered in his mind from the innocents who had just been killed.  He closed his eyes and pressed a hand to his forehead.

            Mara, reacting more to his Force sense than his waking, snapped out of her light doze immediately.  "Luke?  What is it?  What's wrong?"

            "You…didn't feel that?"

            Mara shook her head in the darkness and wrapped an arm around his shoulders.  He was trembling.  "Luke, what happened?  Tell me," she urged.

            Luke turned big eyes to her and she saw tears gathered there.  In a whisper, he answered, "Hundreds were just killed.  Because of me.  All because of me." He buried his head in his hands.

            _Because of me.___


	3. Chapter 3

            Leia sighed as she looked at her brother across the small table in the lounge of the _Falcon_.  For the past week and a half, he had been restless, often staring out at the starlines of hyperspace in the cockpit.  She could sense that something had happened to him shortly after they had left Coruscant, but he would not open up and tell her what.

            Mara had been only slightly less restless than her husband.  She constantly sparred with her lightsaber for practice and usually it was with Leia.  Luke would beg off from the practice, always giving some idle excuse.  Normally, Mara would not have left his excuses alone, but for some reason now she did.

            It was driving Leia, and Han for that matter, off the wall.

            "C'mon, kid," Han was once again trying to get Luke to help him tinker with the _Falcon_.  "I could use a hand."

            Luke turned downcast blue eyes to his friend and slowly shook his head.  "No," he gave his typical response, "not this time."

            Leia had had enough.

            As Luke walked out of the lounge to more than likely sit in the cockpit again, Leia rounded on Mara.

            "Enough is enough!" She snapped, her patience at an end, startling both Han and Mara.  "You either tell me what is going on _right now_ or I find a way to put something in your food that will highly make you sick!" She put her hands on hips, her eyes flashing with anger.

            Mara let her full lips curve upward in a small smile.  "Very well then," she said as she sat down at the table, gesturing for Leia and Han to join her.  "A night or so after we left, Luke was sent a warning by Brakiss through the Force."  Her penetrating green eyes locked on Leia.  "If he does not willingly give himself up to die, then thousands, possibly millions of innocents will die instead."

            Han blinked. "Is Brakiss crazy?  Luke bested him once already in battle; why would he challenge him again?"

            Mara sighed.  "I do not think it was a challenge for battle.  He wants Luke to land on planet, come to him, and somehow let him chose Luke's death.  He wasn't very clear on the details."

            "Who?" Leia asked, confused. "Who wasn't clear on the details?  Luke, or Brakiss?"

            "Both." 

            Mara stood again and leaned against the table. Her green eyes look sad and lost.  "It seems as though I'll be a widow soon.  You both know Luke.  He'll do it if it means saving others."

            Leia frowned at her sister-in-law. "Why are you just meekly sitting by and letting Luke do this?  This isn't like you."

            Mara rounded on her, scowling. "Have we landed yet? No!  I am not giving up my husband without a fight, Leia.  We need to be prepared against anything he might try with us.  Because he will.  We all know it."

            Han and Leia nodded. 

            Luke sat staring at the starlines of space.  He kept hoping that the hypnotic stars would help ease his mind enough that he could meditate, but so far it had not.  It had been years since he had been so troubled that he could not focus enough to mediate.

            He sighed.

            And what was he to do with Leia, Han, Chewie and Mara?  They would certainly insist on coming with him.  How could he convince them not to?

            There was no way to convince them.

            So what could he do as Jedi to make them stay on the ship and take off without him?  Something that would not take him over to the dark side, that was for sure.  But what?

            Well, he still had four days to think about it.  He would come up with something.

            His eyes narrowed.  And then this business with Brakiss would have to be finished…one way…or another.


	4. Chapter 4

            Luke woke from another nightmare.  He pressed a hand to his face and felt the sweat that had gathered there.  The closer they came, the more the nightmares came to him.  

            "Luke?"

            "Go back to sleep, Mara," he murmured, hooking his arms around his knees.  No sense for her to have to be awake along with him.

            "Forget it, Skywalker," Mara responded, her tone hardening. "I may be your wife now, but I don't have to obey you in everything." She sat up. "Was it another dream from Brakiss?"

            Luke sighed and nodded.  "I'll be glad when we land today.  It's time to face him and get this over with."

            Mara hugged her husband.  "He won't be happy with anything less than your death, and you know it.  What do you hope to gain by going?"

            He turned haunted eyes to her.  "My father had good in him still and he was the one who actually managed to kill the Emperor at the end—I was too much in pain to do much of anything.  Brakiss is the same—I know there is good in him.  I have to try to draw that out of him again."

            "But he rejected you the last time you saw him and tried," Mara reminded him. "I think this time he's too far gone, Luke.  The only thing you'll accomplish is to leave me a widow before I got to enjoy my chance of being a wife."

            He shook damp hair out of his eyes.  "I don't want that, but I can't be selfish, Mara.  Hundreds are dying and more will as well if I don't go.  Maybe I can get him to duel with me; at least that way there will be a fairer chance of one of us being killed, and perhaps not me.  I don't know what he's been doing to train himself, but his ability to shield all those deaths from everyone worries me.  He…may be too powerful in the dark side for even me to kill."

            Mara hit him hard on the back side of his head.

            "Ow! What was that for?"

            Her green eyes blazed at him. "No more defeatist talk like that, do you hear me?" She demanded.  "If I have to physically knock some sense into your stubborn head then I will." She glared at him.

            Luke blinked, and then started to laugh.  He laughed so hard that he thought he might cry.  Soon, Mara was laughing with him and they rolled around on the bed like children.

            "Luke!"

            "Mara?  What's going on?"

            Luke and Mara glanced up to see Han, Leia and Chewie standing at their doorway.  All three of their faces were surprised, their eyes wide.

            Luke snorted at the comical sight, caught up in a fit of laughter.  "I'm stubborn," he choked out.

            Mara nodded and glanced at him.  "Painfully so."

            They caught each other's eye and started laughing again.

            Leia tapped Han on the shoulder to gain his attention. A grin threatened to break out on her face as well at the sight of her brother finally laughing again. "Come on. Let's give them some time alone."

            Han started to chuckle.  "But I don't want to have to discuss this with a committee."

            She caught on to their running joke and punched him in the arm.  "I am _not_ a committee."

            The three of them laughed and returned to their rooms for the night.

            "I need you up here, Luke.  We're about to land and I need to know where Brakiss is," Han called into the comm unit.

            "Be right there," was the reply.  

            In just a few seconds, Luke was there behind him, wearing an all black outfit and a somber expression.  His eyes flicked over the landscape of Helska and after a moment, he pointed to the left. 

            "He's over there.  Try to land in the clearing in the trees right before that hilltop," he instructed.

            Han nodded, and he and Chewie expertly piloted the _Falcon_ to the designated place while Leia and Mara joined them in the cockpit.

            Luke frowned at Mara's camouflage outfit.  "Where do you think you're going?"

            Mara sent him a venomous look.  "With you.  You don't seriously think I'm letting you go by yourself, do you?"

            "Neither am I," chimed in Leia.

            "Now, look here…" He started, but Mara cut him off.

            "No, _you_ look.  We are your family, Luke.  Families protect each other.  I was too young to help my own family but I'm sure as a frozen night on Hoth not going to let you go into this alone.  And don't try any Jedi stuff on me, either.  I know ways to get around the techniques you are trained in, and you know it." She stood with her hands on her hips, her eyes and sense reading nothing but determination to go.

            He sighed and gave up.  Kissing her on the forehead, he whispered, "I love you so much, Mara." He gave her a tight smile.

            Her eyes twinkled.  "I know."

            Han cleared his throat.  "If this sappy little episode has passed, then we better get going…Brakiss is waiting up there on that hill."

            Luke rounded to face him.  "'We'?" He questioned.

            Han raised an eyebrow. "Yes, 'we'.  Mara's words apply to us, too.  Though Chewie'll stay here to keep the _Falcon_ ready to fly for a quick get away."

            Luke frowned.  "You're not going."

            "What?!  What do you mean, I'm not going?  You can't order me around!" Han replied, indignant.

            Luke half-closed his eyes and focused on his friend.  He began to put Han through a healing trance to have him stay in one place.  It was much harder to do so on someone who was not gifted in the Force and it took him longer than he liked, but the result was the same.  Han's knees buckled as he slipped into the trance, and Luke neatly caught him.

            "Luke! There was no call for that!" He heard his sister protest from behind him.

            Chewie let out a roar.

            Luke arranged Han comfortably in his pilot's seat and did not turn around as he explained, "Han is not Force-sensitive.  This battle will be hard enough for those of us who are strong in the Force.  Han's life would be too much in danger for him to come with Mara and I.  I couldn't let him do it."

            "I'm going too!" Leia declared.

            Luke finally turned to look at her.  His blue eyes were sad.  "No, Leia.  I'm afraid you are not." Quickly, he put her in a healing trance as well.

            "Luke…this is treading on dangerous ground of the dark side," Mara warned him as he took Leia to her and Han's room on the _Falcon_.

            He nodded as he laid his sister out on the bed.  "I know, but I had to do it.  I would never be able to live if I did defeat Brakiss but he had killed them.  This way, they will be safe."

            "They'll be madder than wounded banthas when they wake up, though," Mara observed, a slight tinge of humor in her tone.

            "At least they'll be alive," Luke returned. He walked briskly back to the cockpit.  "Be ready for anything, Chewie."

            Chewbacca nodded, though he did not seem comfortable with what Luke had done.

            Neither was Luke himself, for that matter.  But he did what he thought he must.  Now it was time to finally end things between himself and Brakiss, for better or worse.


	5. Chapter 5

Brakiss was waiting patiently at the top of the hill, his arms in the opposite sleeves of his robes.  He frowned when he noticed Mara walking alongside Luke.

"I thought I said just you, Skywalker," he called, irritably.

Luke gave him a small smile as he paused a few steps from his former student. "You know wives, Brakiss.  They don't listen."

Mara scowled and pointed her unlit lightsaber at Brakiss. "I remember you as a skinny runt who was so afraid of his own shadow that we had to coax you out of the Temple for practice.  What do you think you're doing, issuing threats to my husband on our wedding night?" She crossed her arms and glared.

Luke and Brakiss stared at her a moment, both of them in shock at the bluntness of her words.

"Told you," Luke shrugged.

Brakiss rolled his eyes slightly. "I want just you, Skywalker. Mara can go free."

Mara pointedly dug the toe of her boot in the dirt.

            "Fine," Brakiss spat. "But I have no quarrel with you, Jade."

            "It's Jade Skywalker now, Brakiss," Mara corrected him with sugary sweetness in her tone.

            Luke cleared his throat to gain both of their attentions again. "Brakiss, I don't want to fight you.  And I don't want you to keep killing all of these innocent people." He gave Brakiss a familiar stare that he had perfected with unruly nephews and a niece.

            "I don't listen to your false words anymore, Skywalker," Brakiss declared. "They only poison the mind." He took a step backward and raised his lightsaber.  "It is time for you to defend yourself. When you die, you should know that I will not harm your wife, unless she makes it a point to come at me."

            "And then we shall see who will harm whom," Mara spat at him, her green eyes flashing.

            Luke held up a restraining hand.  "Mara, this is a battle I must try to win on my own." His eyes searched hers, hoping that she would understand what he could not explain in words.

            For a moment, she just glared at him, and then her expression softened.  She gave him a long, lingering kiss. 

            "But you better believe that I'll come in if I think you're losing," she half-teased him.  Her eyes were sad, but determined.

            Luke smiled at her. "And I'll appreciate it.  I love you."

            "Love you, too," she responded.  Dragging her feet, she walked about seven feet away and then sat down cross-legged on the grass.  She closed her eyes and suddenly Luke could feel her boast his strength. 

            //I'm right here with you until the end,// he heard in his mind.

            He smiled and then spun his lightsaber into his fist.  "I'm ready for you, Brakiss.  If it is necessary for you to have peace, then let's do this."

            Brakiss gave him a truly chilling grin. "Oh, it's necessary."

            Luke focused deeply into the Force.  It was hardly a surprise to him, then, when Brakiss suddenly flipped, trying to get behind Luke to slash at his back.  Luke spun around while Brakiss was in mid-flip and kicked at him.

            Brakiss was caught off-guard and his landing was shaky.  While he was still trying to find his balance, Luke decided to press his advantage to test how much his student had learned while away from him.  He thrusted in quick succession about five or six times, alternating between left and right slashes.

            Brakiss was quick.  He effortlessly blocked every one of Luke's attacks, and then he took the offensive.

            Luke was surprised at how ferocious Brakiss had become.  Very quickly, Luke's arms were beginning to tire from the constant bombardment of Brakiss' assault.  He had to do something to trip his former student up, but what?  He was beginning to believe that this battle would end only with one of their deaths.

            Brakiss went to kick at Luke so Luke dodged a little to the side.  In mid-motion, Brakiss shifted his angle and knocked Luke's lightsaber out of his grip.

            Luke swiftly called his falling lightsaber back to him…but it paused in its flight and shuddered.  Startled, he glanced at Brakiss to discover his hand out for the lightsaber as well.  If Brakiss managed to disarm him, he would then be in very serious trouble indeed.

            He strained, veins popping out along his skin in his mental battle for his weapon.  Then, in a surge that shocked Brakiss and Luke himself, the lightsaber sailed neatly into Luke's palm.  Luke's eyes cut to his wife, still sitting cross-legged on the ground and he smiled.  Though she would respect his wishes to stay out of the physical battle, she evidently had decided to help him mentally instead.

            He wouldn't complain.  He wasn't as young as he used to be and Brakiss was twenty years his junior.

            Brakiss glowered and speedily slashed at Luke's momentarily open side.

            Luke felt white-hot fire burn into him as the yellow lightsaber of his student bit into his side.  Hot blood gushed from the deep wound to run down his side and he hissed in pain.  Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Mara twitch, but she did not get up.

            Sadly, Luke knew for a certainty now that this fight would only be ended by one of them dying.  Brakiss wanted blood—so he would have it.

            Luke straightened and used Jedi pain suppression techniques to keep the pain from interfering with his movements.  He wasn't sure how deep the wound was and he knew the danger of bleeding to death so he resolved to quicken this battle to its conclusion.

            Brakiss twirled his lightsaber in his hands—and that's when Luke saw the weakness in Brakiss's fighting.  He smiled serenely.

            _Mara, help me_, he sent to his wife, and showed her in quick mental pictures what he planned to do.  With his injury, he would need his wife's added strength to assist him to complete it.

            Luke danced to his right foot which was in front of him in his stance.  To Brakiss, it looked like a lunge and so Brakiss went to block it as such.  Drawing on the Force—and Mara's own strength as well—Luke used his forward momentum to suddenly tuck and roll in between Brakiss's outstretched legs.  His side pulled, tearing the skin that was already weakened, like he knew it would.  He ignored it and jabbed upward with his lightsaber, trusting in Mara's now open eyes to guide his hand in his blind strike.

            He came back to his fight, swaying slightly, and gazed at a very surprised Brakiss.  The younger man seemed almost betrayed by Luke's desperate maneuver, and then he toppled over, the hole in his gut spilling more blood than Luke's wound.

            Luke closed down his lightsaber and stood over Brakiss as he died.  

            "I never meant to hurt you, Brakiss.  I did not know that my words would make your mother do what she did.  I'm sorry," Luke said sincerely. "But when you hurt and kill hundreds of innocent people just to avenge your hate is when you cross the line between a Jedi and the dark side."

            Brakiss shuddered and even as he died Luke could read the hate in them for him.

            Luke sighed and wobbled on his feet.  Mara caught him.

            Gazing up at her, he whispered, "Let's go home."

            Leia was furious when Mara brought her out of her healing trance that Luke had put her in.

            "Where is he?" She stormed.  "If Brakiss didn't do it, then I'll kill him! How dare he!" 

           Mara calmly looked her sister-in-law in the eye, then glanced at Han as he started to come around.  "He's hurt badly.  Brakiss got him deep in the side.  I can't stop the bleeding." Her quiet tone spoke volumes of how worried she was.

            Leia sobered.  "Take me to him.  Han, get us out of here."

            As Chewie got the _Falcon _off the ground, Mara took Leia to the medical bunk where Luke had been after their father had cut his hand off when he was eighteen.  He was slumbering deeply, blood-soaked bandages wrapped around his chest.

            "He put himself in a healing trance to see how badly he was hurt.  He thinks Brakiss knicked a vein, though whether by accident or design neither of us will ever know," Mara informed Leia.

            Leia sharply glanced at Mara. "So Brakiss…?"

            "Is dead, yes," Mara finished. "Luke killed him, though he didn't want to."

            Leia let out a sigh of relief, though she was still worried for her brother.  "Well, we don't have to go to Coruscant right away to get him to a medcenter.   There's one on our way on Ithor.  If he can hold out a few days longer."

            "He will," Mara promised, her voice a growl. "He better, or he'll have to deal with me."

            Leia laughed.


	6. Chapter 6

            Luke stood at the edge of a precipice.  Strong gusts of wind blew his hair around his face and the twin suns were setting.  It was very hot, so hot that his outfit clung to his body.

            How did he get on Tatooine?  The last thing he remembered was standing of Brakiss's body and talking to Mara.

            "Luke?"

            He turned to face his wife, startled.  He had never been with Mara on his home planet of Tatooine.  If this were a dream, why was she here?

            "It's not exactly a dream, Luke," Mara informed him as she came up beside him.  "We are in your mind.  This is something Palpatine taught me to do when he wanted a slow death for someone I was to kill."

            He raised an eyebrow.  "Are you finally going to fulfill his last command?" He asked, wryly.

            Mara rolled her eyes.  "We haven't been married long enough for me to want to kill you."

            "Then why are you doing this?" He had no idea what she was doing or why.

            She stared at him and he was surprised to see tears in her beautiful emerald eyes. Softly, she answered, "To keep you alive."

            Shocked, he let her words absorb before he asked, "So, I was injured that badly?"

            She nodded and then rested her head against his shoulder, wrapping an arm around his back.  "I don't want to lose you, Skywalker.  We're not going to make it to Coruscant; you're bleeding too badly.  So Han is going to take us to Ithor.  Concentrate on healing between now and then.  Stay with me."

            Luke intertwined his fingers with hers.  The last time he had shared an intimate moment with someone through the Force it had been with Callista on the dreadnaught, the _Eye of the Palpatine_.  Since he felt fine here, in his mind, he wondered if he could share a few precious moments with his wife.

            Mara glanced up at him, a sly smile on her face.  "Yes, Luke," she whispered and then reached for his face for a passionate kiss.  When they were laying together on the ground, she explained, "I am here, with you in your mind, united through the Force.  And I deeply love you."

            Luke smiled at her.  "If it should be my time to finally depart this galaxy, at least I'll know that I was allowed a few more moments with you."

            "Oh, shut up and kiss me again," Mara teased, bringing him to her.

            Leia was leaning on the bulkhead of the _Falcon_, watching Mara breathing deeply and evenly.  Her sister-in-law was sitting cross-legged on the floor next to the medical bunk where Luke was laying.  She had told them two days ago that she was going into hibernation with Luke, and had given her a code phrase to snap her out of it when they reached Ithor.  She had explained to Leia that she knew a technique that would help keep Luke alive longer, no matter how close to death he was—and Leia could feel that death was very, very close to her brother this time.  Brakiss was dead, but extremely close to getting what he had wanted.

            "How long can she go without food or water?" Han whispered from behind her.

            Leia glanced up at her husband.  "A few days.  But we'll reach Ithor tomorrow so we'll get her out of hibernation early so she can recover."

            "What is she doing?"

            Leia shrugged.  "I'm not entirely certain.  Something she must have learned while being the Emperor's Hand, no doubt.  I really didn't think Luke would even make it to Ithor with all the blood that he's lost, and continues to lose.  But now the bleeding has slowed and he shows a tad bit more color than he did so I have hope.  Whatever Mara is doing is working so I'll leave her to it."  She turned away and walked into the galley.

            Han lingered a few more minutes, taking in the sight of a woman in love desperately trying to keep the man she loved from leaving her.  Then he joined his wife.

            "Would you do something like that for me?" He asked, poking her gently in the side.

            Leia frowned, her brows furrowing.  "What do you mean, 'would I'?  I have!  Or do you forget so quickly me going into Jabba's palace in disguise to free you from the carbonite?" 

            He chuckled.  "I don't think I could ever forget that.  Or that outfit he made you wear.  I never did get a chance to thank him."

            Leia punched him hard in the arm.  "Han!  That was humiliating!  Me, Princess of Alderaan, dressed worse than a cantina girl.  Honestly!"

            "Wasn't nothin' honest about you in that outfit, sweetheart," her husband teased.  "I was so very glad that my sight returned so I could see you in it."

            Leia was still laughing when he finally got up to fix them some dinner.

            Mara paced around the room for the millionth time, and suddenly Leia could not take it anymore.

            "Mara!  Please!  Sit down!  You're making me more nervous," she implored her sister-in-law.

            Mara sat down with a grunt and dropped her head into her hands.  "What's taking so long?  He's been in there for ten hours!"

            Leia could sympathize with her new sister.  When they had landed on one of Ithor's large city-ships, medics had quickly whisked Luke away to their state-of-the-art medical facility.  And there he had been in surgery for the past ten hours.

            "We just have to be patient," Leia told her, also for the millionth time.

            Han and Chewie both growled their dislike of that idea.

            Fortunately, the head Ithorian doctor walked in, to spare them from killing each other.

            Mara immediately sprung to her feet.  "How is he?"

            The hammerhead-like being smiled gently at her.  "Master Skywalker is out of danger now.  Once we began to work on closing his artery, we discovered that he had other, internal problems as well.  We can only deduce that the lightsaber blade went into his side more deeply than first thought, which also explains—besides the severed artery—the volume of blood loss.  Whatever you did," and now he gazed at Mara alone, "saved his life."

            Mara briefly closed her eyes in relief.  "When can I see him?"

            "You may all see him right now, though briefly," the doctor assured them.  "He is sleeping.  As you can imagine, with the amount of loss of blood that he had, he is very weak.  While his body recovers, he'll need to stay here.  It is too dangerous just yet for him to be moved or walk around."

            "He'll hate that," Han remarked.

            Leia elbowed him in the stomach to quiet him.

            Mara smiled at the doctor. "Please, lead the way."

            Luke appeared to be sleeping soundly, though monitors scattered all over his room showed in detail his vital signs.  Through the thin sheet covering him, Mara could see a large white bandage covering the wound on his side.

            "We will place him in bacta in a few days," the doctor said to her questioning glance.  "He is too weak to even be placed in bacta."

            Mara nodded.  She had come that close to being alone again.  So close.  Thankfully, when she had joined him in his mind, he had not wanted to leave her, therefore it had been easier for her to use the Force to slow down his body's dying process.

            "Luke, if you can hear me," Leia was whispering close to her brother's ear.  "I'm going to try to donate some of my blood for you.  You lost too much.  Hang in there—we all need you."  She gently squeezed her twin's limp hand.  "I love you, Luke."  Then she turned away, tears in her eyes.  Evidently she realized how close she had come to losing her brother.

            Chewie lightly patted Luke's face, and wuff wuffed his sentiments for him to get well.

            Then Han cleared his throat.  "Hey, kid, I know you're tough stuff so I won't waste mushy talk about you getting better.  I mean, you had your spirit locked away in a temple, for Sith's sake!  I know you'll be back to bugging us in no time."  Leia hit him.

            "I…I want to stay here, alone," Mara said, gazing at the doctor.

            After a moment's hesitation, he nodded and ushered Luke's family out.

            Mara clasped Luke's hand in her own.  "Stay with me, Skywalker," she murmured.  "Stay with me."  She dragged up a chair to sit in near him, and then sank into the Force to help him heal.

            "Ah, Master Skywalker!  So good to see you awake again!"

            Luke weakly lifted his head an inch or so from his pillow to see the doctor stride in.  Behind him was Mara, Han and Chewbacca.  He frowned.

            "Where's…Leia?"  He inquired, those two words alone sapping him of most of his strength.

            "She gave you some of her blood, kid," Han informed him, leaning in the doorway.  "She's next door, recovering.  She should be here to bug ya by tonight."

            Luke smiled and then let his head sink back into his pillow.

            Mara immediately sensed his feelings and came over to rub his arm.  She smiled down at him.  "How do you feel?"  She asked as the doctor checked the monitors around the room.

            He flopped his hand a couple of times to indicate 'so-so'.

            "You almost made me kill you, Skywalker," Mara said, her voice deepening into a threat as her eyes narrowed.

            Luke's eyes widened in shock and he indicated that he had no idea what she was talking about.

            "If you had died," she explained, "I would have brought you back and then killed you myself." She smiled.

            Luke gave a short laugh.  He had to marry a feisty one.

            The Ithorian doctor returned to him and grinned, showing his flat, herbivore teeth.  "You'll recover nicely, I think.  Now take it easy and don't try to walk just yet.  We might try you on bacta tomorrow.  I'll leave you alone for your family."  He started to walk out and then barked in surprise to someone standing at the doorway.  "What are you doing up?  You need to be in bed!"

            "I will once I talk to my brother," Leia's voice returned.  "I promise."

            The doctor tsked, tsked and walked away, shaking his large head.

            Leia poked her head into the room, looking as tired as he felt.  "Hi, Luke.  I felt you wake up and wanted to be here." She pulled her robe more tightly around her figure.  Han wrapped his arms around her.

            "Thank…you…" Luke told his sister.

            She smiled.  "Blood is thicker than water," she joked, then winced. "But it sure does hurt to share it."

            They all chuckled at her words.

            Luke gazed at all of them.  They had risked everything to come with him, and then to save him.  He looked up at his wife.  Blood was indeed thicker than water, but the unifying Force was stronger than even blood.  He smiled.  With his family's help, he'd recover and once again be off in the galaxy trying to set some wrong to make it right.  But until then…

            He winked suggestively at Mara and she laughed.

            "Recover first, farmboy, then we'll see what we can do to make you feel better," she promised silkily.

            Luke couldn't wait to get out that bed.

THE END


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